In my U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,937 there is described a nucleating assembly for snowmaking apparatus which is the prior art design upon which the improvements of the invention have been made. The nucleating nozzles in that design are positioned far downstream from the fan and its flow straightening fins almost at the outlet end of the housing where water is sprayed into the airstream. The mixing of air and water for the nucleators takes place within the nucleator vanes themselves in that prior art design immediately upstream of the nucleating nozzles. The downstream edge portions of those nucleator vanes are tapered in the same manner as their upstream edge portions.
In addition the mixture of air and water ejected from the nucleator nozzles enters the airstream in a direction parallel to the axis of the tubular housing rather than at an angle thereto. Ejection of an air-water mixture from a nucleator nozzle in snowmaking apparatus at an angle to the tubular housing axis is not itself novel as shown by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,105,161 and 5,180,106. However the air-water mixture in those prior art patents is not ejected directly into the straight airstream flow but rather into the lee or shadow of other parts in the tubular housing around which the airstream flows. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,106 that other part is a manifold casing around the nucleator nozzles and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,161 it is a deflector which directs the airstream flow away from the nucleator nozzles.
It is the principal purpose of the present invention to improve the nucleating effect of the nucleator assembly by changing the position of the nucleator nozzles in relation to the downstream air spray, by mixing the water and air well upstream from the nucleating nozzles, by designing the nucleator vanes so that they create turbulence around the nucleator nozzles, and by angling the air-water mix into the straight line airstream flow.